The final Merchant Ivory collaboration, following the death of producer Ismail Merchant during production, is an elegant but uneven affair. Scripted by novelist Kazuo Ishiguro (The Remains of the Day), this charts the relationship that forms between blind former US diplomat Todd Jackson (Ralph Fiennes) and Russian refugee Countess Sofia Belinskya (Natasha Richardson) in late 1930s Shanghai. After their initial meeting at the sleazy club where she's a reluctant hostess, Jackson becomes fascinated with the countess, eventually falling in love with her when she agrees to front his own bar. With the city on the brink of Japanese invasion, the drama ripples with political intrigue and underworld corruption, giving it a sophisticated, Casablanca-style sheen. Yet while events look wonderful, they're too sanitised to entirely ring true. Fortunately, Fiennes is an impeccable diversion, bringing to his role a poignant emotional intensity that Richardson has to work hard to match.

In 1930s Shanghai, 'The White Countess' is both Sofia, a fallen member of the exiled Russian aristocracy, and a nightclub created by a blind American diplomat who asks Sofia to be the centerpiece of the world he wants to create.